Keeping kids entertained!

Menu

Tag Archives: review

As you may have read, we are in the process of potty training Harrison. This means when we are at home he is quite often running around in just a pair of pants on his bottom half. This saves my washing pile, but even with the heating cranked up I worry his legs might be cold. When I saw some cute leg warmers at Nappy kind Boutique, I couldn’t resist ordering some.

I apologise in advance for the blurry photos – taking decent photos of toddlers who refuse to keep still for more than a second at a time on an ancient iPhone is something I’m yet to accomplish!

There are tonnes of gorgeous designs for boys and girls, and plenty of unisex ones, so would be a great gift for a baby. The prices are really reasonable as well. Harrison’s funky blue stripy ones were sale ones and were just £1.99.

They’re beautifully soft and easy to get on and off, which is handy for a two year old who is learning to dress himself. What they were brilliant for is keeping his legs warm whilst leaving perfect access to get to the potty quickly! Although the material is quite thick, it’s not bulky so good for layering under clothes, especially in this weather. Harrison has long legs but these went right up to this thigh and are stretchy so don’t dig in. My only criticism is when he was jumping around like the loony that he is they tended to roll down occasionally.

I obviously couldn’t not pick something for Alex, so I chose him an adorable leggings. I am completely in love with these – couldn’t wait to get them washed and dried ready to wear again, and I’m secretly (or not so secretly now!) coveting a pair for myself (a sideline perhaps for Nappykind?!)

I know that boy tights and leggings are becoming more and more popular because as well as looking unbelievably cute they are really practical. I chose Alex these ‘doughnut shop’ ones which again were on sale at £1.99. I ordered 12-24 months which fit him spot on but have more than enough growing room. I particularly love the bum which is extra roomy to accommodate bulky nappies.

They’re practical as they’re easy to get on and off for those never ending bum changes, but more importantly, they’re comfortable. As am adult, I find jeans restrictive and I’m much more comfy in leggings (part of the slummy mummy uniform!). For a toddler who sees the lounge as an adventure activity centre this must be even more so, and it isn’t very easy to find bottoms that aren’t jeans for boys. Again, they’re great for layering under clothes.

I asked a few friends what they think of these and they all said how lovely they are, but because they’re so patterned it can be hard to match clothes. I can definitely see this as I couldn’t see many plain designs, but on the other hand, toddlers can pull the mismatched look off!! Alex looked great wearing the doughnuts leggings with a Batman sweatshirt and a blue and red stripy vest!!

Nappykind’s range doesn’t just include leg warmers and leggings – they stock cute little booties, cloth nappies and tights, and sizes go up to age four.
I waited until I washed and dried them because I always think that how something is after washing is a sign of its quality. These didn’t disappoint – no shrinkage or bobbling yet! I imagine after a few wears the odd bobble may appear especially with crawling babies but that is just the nature of the material.

I will be definitely buying some more of the leggings for both kids!!

Follow them on Twitter @NappyKind

*Disclosure
I was able to purchase these with a special bloggers discount, but all opinions and thoughts expressed are my own.

A couple of weeks ago we reviewed an excellent craft kit from ToucanBox. Today we used the other box that we were sent, and yet again I was very impressed!!

We have started our pirate theme week today but were also visiting my nan. The Toucan Box set was perfect to chuck in my bag to do there , as it is low mess and literally everything we needed was contained in the box!

We were sent a lovely pirate treasure map set. When I say it contained everything, I mean everything – even down to the glue stick, paint brush and teabag to stain the paper!

We made a pot of tea using the teabag provided (and had a cuppa with it – bonus!) and left into stew to go nice and dark as the very simple step by step instructions directed. We scrumpled up the paper and then used the paintbrush to ‘paint’ on the tea, and left it to dry. Whilst it was drying we made the parrot puppet- a cardboard cutout which we decorated with the mini felt pens included, and then glued on the feathers, googly eye and jumbo lolly stick. The only thing I would say is the glue stick didn’t hold the lollystick handle or eye on very well – I’ve used my glue gun to make it more secure. Perhaps some sort of sticky back or sticky pad would hold it better? Minor details though!

Once the paper had dried we decorated it with the pirate stickers and felt tip pens. What do you think?

The prices for Toucan Boxes vary depending on what level of subscription you go for, but single packs are available which give a months worth of craft ideas for just under £20, which would make a lovely gift idea.
The lovely people at Toucan have given me a code to share with you to claim a free taster box! Just visit their website <a href="http://www.toucanbox.com
“>here and enter the code TOUCAN.
Enjoy!

* I was sent this and another Toucan Box for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I was really excited the other day when our postlady dropped these through the door – our review samples from Toucan Box.

Toucan Box is a small company, and was the brainwave of a busy mum of two. Her daughter wanted to make all the fantastic things she saw kids TV presenters knock up from a couple of bits lying about. Except, like most mums, she didn’t have all the resources. So, she developed Toucan Boxes, which contain every resource that you need to complete a craft project.

I received two boxes for this review. The one is a brand new pirate themed box, which I have popped away until we do our pirate theme in a couple of weeks, but a sneaky peek has left me excited about it!! We dived into the other one straight away, and all I can say is WOW!!!

The box contained everything we needed to decorate a canvas bag. Inside was a small canvas shopping bag, a pack of four mini felt tips, stencils, paper and tissue paper and a paintbrush as well as nature scavenger hunt cards.

The instructions were really clear – we basically had to design a pattern with the tissue paper on the paper, dab water on the tissue paper with the paintbrush and press it onto the bag. It did say it needed 24 hours to dry but within a couple of hours hung above the radiator it was dry. We then used the stencils and pens to finish the bag.

I’ve put the scavenger cards away for now (there’s one for each season) to do at a later date when weather perks up, but what a fab idea! Harrison’s been using it when playing with his market stall as his little shopping bag. The instructions also contain links to the EYFS framework and key stage one and two, so you know where it fits in with your child’s education. It also comes with a few extra ideas to extend the activity.

I can say that I am certainly very impressed with the quality of the resources and the fact it contains everything we needed, other than scissors!!

The prices for Toucan Boxes vary depending on what level of subscription you go for, but single packs are available which give a months worth of craft ideas for just under £20, which would make a lovely gift idea.
The lovely people at Toucan have given me a code to share with you to claim a free taster box! Just visit their website here and enter the code TOUCAN.
Enjoy!

* I was sent this and another pack free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions and thoughts expressed are my own.

Today was the start of our ‘under the sea’ week, and to kick it off we went to the Birmingham Sea Life Centre, who had kindly put us on their guest list.
I’d been there years and years ago with friends and enjoyed it so was excited about taking the two little people there!

It was incredibly busy when we got there at 11am. I’d forgotten that some schools don’t go back until tomorrow! We didn’t have to wait too long though.
The centre is connected by ramps and walkways, and if I’m honest they’re a little narrow, especially as there was lots of pushchairs, making it extremely hard to get past. It also meant Harrison and Alex were bumped into a lot by adults who don’t appear to watch they’re walking! We didn’t get very close to a lot of displays either. The windows to see things are quite high and in some parts there are a step for the kids to stand on but quite a lot didn’t, which meant we constantly had to pick the kids up so they could see.

We enjoyed the interactive rockpool where you can touch and hold starfish and crabs. If you know me, you know I have a serious phobia of crabs, but I was really brave and managed to touch (albeit extremely quickly!) one. The lady who was looking after the area was really lovely and made me feel at ease and not at all stupid.
It’s a lovely place to walk through. There are areas that make you feel like you’re walking through rainforests, and areas that are very dark and atmospheric. The jellyfish (which were one of my favourite things – never realised how incredibly beautiful they are!) were bathed in neon lights making them look spectacular.

I’m not sure Harrison felt entirely comfortable with the darkness but that’s an age thing. Alex loved it! We enjoyed the big tank of rays,especially Alex who kept waving at them and threw a wobbler when we left it!

However, the absolute highlight of the visit was their famous 360 degree glass tunnel. It is amazing, watching huge rays and hammerhead sharks glide above you, watching tiny fish swim beneath your feet, but best of all seeing the truly incredible giant sea turtle swim past you.

However, I do have a few moans. I remember the 4d cinema being fantastic, and was looking forward to visiting it. However the queuing area for it is in the same area as the otter feeding area so was chaotic and poorly organised. There were no staff to tell us how long it was to wait and no clear queue start/end point, with us and several families standing around feeling very confused. We eventually worked out that the next viewing was a 20 minute wait. The area is on a sort of balcony so is open, and was very cold. The centre is obviously very warm so we hadn’t got coats and was freezing, so had to leave the queue. By this point, all the other families waiting had also given up and moved on. I was really disappointed that we didn’t get that opportunity, but couldn’t stand in the freezing cold with two toddlers for that long. We also never got to see the otters either. A lot of the displays were either empty or covered with a sign saying they were being ‘spring cleaned’,
The centre has the obligatory gift shop, which was reasonably priced. We bought a lovely little pirate chest for our upcoming pirate week which was £3.50 and a shark grabber which was £3 so not horrendous!
All in all? Well, I think I would have been disappointed if we had paid the £30+ ticket price for me and Graham (kids under three are free). We enjoyed it but were only there just over an hour which I don’t think warrants the price. However, I think if you’d had older kids who could see into the tanks easily and were prepared to wait for a long time to see things and went when they’re not doing a big clean and building new exhibitions you would enjoy it.

For Christmas, Harrison and Alex had some Melissa and Doug sets. I had asked for these as they looked lovely and when we played with them I was even more impressed.

Melissa and Doug are an American company that specialise in toys that promote creativity and imagination. Most of their toys are wooden which I especially love as I have a soft spot for wooden toys. They last longer and always look much more beautiful than plastic ones!

It comes presented in a beautiful wooden tray that holds the set together. My only tiny criticism is that it doesn’t have any sort of lid – but that literally is the only negative thing I can say!

It is a beautiful wooden pizza with Velcro on so it can hold together or be ‘cut’ with the wooden pizza cutter tool into six slices. This is brilliant for early numeracy skills. We’ve been using it to count! It is also a way of introducing basic fractions to children. We’ve already started talking about haves using it. If I was still teaching in schools, i’d definitely be using this for fraction lessons!
It comes with over 50 ‘toppings’. These are small round discs with a picture of mushrooms, peppers or salami on and have Velcro attached so they stick to the pizza slices. You can put three toppings on each slice. Again this is fantastic for numeracy skills. Harrison likes to ask me which toppings I want and I can give him various answers e.g. two mushrooms and one pepper. We also had fun sorting out the toppings and making sure they were in the right space!

So far we have had loads of fun with this, and we can use it alongside our toy market stall and kitchen for brilliant role play. It’s also given me a great idea for a craft activity – watch this space!

If you’re looking for a lovely durable toy, I would definitely recommend this!!

We were sent some family tickets to visit the adventure farm at Hatton Country World, with passes to see Santa. With only two weekends left until Christmas, and presents still to buy, we thought we better get going yesterday!
It was a cold but lovely sunny day so we wrapped the kids up and jumped in the car. It’s about 15 miles down some lovely roads to Hatton from where we live, so didn’t take us too long. When we got there just before 12pm, the car park (free parking, always a bonus!) was already filling up. We had a quick wander through the shopping village, which hasn’t changed much since I last went when I was a little girl – lovely little shops selling candles and soaps, garden ornaments, homewares, pretty furniture, toys and more.

There was a small queue to get into the farm but it moved fairly quickly. To pay for our tickets would have cost us nearly £30 (and that’s with Alex being free as he’s under 2!) so not the cheapest day out.
The farm though, to be fair, is huge. Including a half hour stop for lunch it took us a good 4 hours to go round.
The first thing we did was visit the JCB track, a child sized ‘road mat’ with ramps, cones and tunnels with ride on JCB diggers. Having two digger mad boys, this was a great start to our day! There were plenty of toys to ride on even though it was busy – a nice surprise!

When we finally dragged them away we saw the goats and pigs, which we had fun feeding. You can buy a cup of animal feed for 50p from the kiosk as you walk in.

We then wandered down to look at the birds before coming to an attraction where you could pan for gold. Sounds fantastic but it was deserted and the water looked filthy, so we quickly moved on! Next to this was another attraction which looked to be some sort of duck race but again was deserted and looked like it had seen better days!

The leaflets and website advertises ‘festive fun fair rides’ but to be honest these were really disappointing. Three tiny little rides – a spinning teacup ride, a ladybird ride and flying caterpillars – not festive in the slightest. Not only that, the one wasn’t working. Still, the kids had fun.

We then played on the climbing frame, had a bounce on the trampolines and played on the tractors. We especially loved the digger sandpit, which considering it’s a farm and the time of year was spotless and lovely. The kids really enjoyed using the buckets and spades and climbing on the equipment!

We them went to my favourite bit – the animals! There was a lovely variety of animals including donkeys (in a nativity scene!) sheep, goats, pigs, alpacas, rabbits which were all really friendly and tame enough for the kids to stroke. Plenty of places to wash hands and lots of signs to remind you as well. We loves the guinea pig petting area. Harrison loved holding them!

By this point it was almost 2pm and we were hungry! After a quick loo stop and nappy change (toilets ok but definitely room for improvement!) we went to the restaurant attached to the soft play centre – and immediately walked back out ! Absolutely full to the ceiling, noisy and no where to sit. We left the farm area (wristbands allow you to go in and out) and went to another restaurant/coffee shop which although lovely wasn’t really toddler-friendly. Limited food choices – cakes, soup, panini and one or two meal options and that was it. It cost us almost £18 for a bottle of pop, hot chocolate, a pot of tea, a scone and some fish and chips, which were all very nice.

Then we paid a visit to Santa. Sadly at this point my phone went flat so I couldn’t take photos! We walked through the elves workshop and winter wonderland which was really magical and enchanting. There are little tables for kids to write letters to Santa. The queue was quite long but moved fairly quickly, but it was a lovely wait surrounded by trees, lights, penguins and polar bears!
When we got in to Santa the kids went a little shy (nothing unusual for toddlers!) and didn’t really speak. I have to admit, ‘Santa’ really annoyed me as he said that Harrison ‘should be speaking at his age’ – he’s 2, and quite rightly is weary of strangers. Was not impressed! The kids were given keys to choose a present from the toy shop, which was huge and had a massive choice of gifts suitable for
all ages, and we’re pretty decent gifts. Harrison chose a hairdressing play dough set and we chose some animal foam stickers for Alex.

After coming out we fussed and stroked the reindeer and then decided it was time to head home as it was nearly 4pm. We hadn’t had chance to visit the kids disco or magic shows. It was starting to get dark and with the fairy lights around and the Christmas music playing through the speakers it was really pretty and festive. As we walked back towards the car we had our complimentary mince pie and delicious mulled fruit punch whilst listening to a kids choir singing Christmas songs.

We had a really lovely day out as a family but would we pay almost £30 to go again? Probably not. Parts of it are very tired and need some TLC to make it worth the entry cost.

I hate cards. You open them, stick them on a shelf where they do nothing but irritate you by falling over and gathering dust. That was until I received a Cardooo card to review!
Cardooo are a small book company with a book publishing background. They have created a range of interactive greeting cards, that contain games, puzzles, stories, stickers and much more, which will amuse kids from the moment they’re opened.

I received two cards from them. The first was a story card ‘The Enormous Turnip’ (which is a story we love!). The card is blank for you to include your own greeting so could be used for any occasion. The card is no bigger than a normal card so I reckon would be pretty standard postage cost. The story is beautifully illustrated and would be perfect for sharing at bedtime!

I really loved the second card which was a Christmas activity card. It contained 12 pages of puzzles, games and colouring activities as well as a fold out board game and stickers. As just a card it is beautiful but the little extras inside make it a really special gift for someone.

The company sells a range of cards for
all sorts of occasions, for a really reasonable price so I know I will be looking at using them for cards in the future!

I’m giving away ‘The Enormous Turnip’ story card to someone lucky. All you need to do is leave a comment telling me what your favourite kids book is and why, and I’ll pick a winner. Winner will be chosen on the evening of Wednesday 11th December. Good luck!!!

*Disclosure
I was sent two samples of Cardooo cards free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions and thoughts expressed are my own.